SEC Baseball Tournament Schedule
The Oklahoma baseball team heads into its first-ever Southeastern Baseball Tournament, likely ready to discover what the league's old-timers have long known.
It doesn't really matter.
The SEC, long the best conference in college baseball, is nearing 25 years of dominance now. This year, the SEC is expected to get 13, perhaps 14, teams into the NCAA Tournament. Regardless of what happens this week in Hoover, Alabama, Oklahoma is one of them.
The Sooners finished 12th in the 16-team league. They'll play a recent foe, Kentucky, less than two weeks after meeting the Wildcats in the penultimate series of the regular season. Kentucky swept that series en route to firmly entrenching itself as an NCAA Tournament team, too. Another win against Oklahoma all but assures it.
The Sooners need not worry. They're not even really a bubble team. The latest NCAA Tournament projections have OU no worse than a two-seed in whichever regional they land in. A loss to Kentucky, coupled with the down-the-stretch struggles during the regular season, could drop them to a regional three-seed, but that's the worst-case scenario for Oklahoma this week.
Meanwhile, beating Kentucky, then Georgia - the waiting opponent for the winner of Sooners/Wildcats - then Vanderbilt, then whatever teams show up in the semifinals and final is moot for Oklahoma's seeding purposes. The Sooners aren't hosting a regional in Norman, and they're certainly not capturing a national seed.
So, off they go to Hoover wanting to win, but not needing to. Don't surprised if coach Skip Johnson plays a bit looser this week, especially if OU beats Kentucky. At that point, the Sooners have no worries.
Here's what the weekly schedule looks like. All times central.
First round - Tuesday, May 20
Game 1: No. 16 Missouri vs. No. 9 Alabama - 9:30 a.m. - SEC Network
Game 2: No. 13 Kentucky vs. No. 12 Oklahoma - 1 p.m. - SEC Network
Game 3: No. 15 South Carolina vs. No. 10 Florida - 4:30 p.m. - SEC Network
Game 4: No. 14 Texas A&M vs. No. 11 Mississippi State - 8 p.m. - SEC Network
Round 2 - Wednesday, May 22
Game 5: Winner of Game 1 vs. No. 8 Tennessee - 9:30 a.m. - SEC Network
Game 6: Winner of Game 2 vs. No. 5 Georgia - 1 p.m. - SEC Network
Game 7: Winner of Game 3 vs. No. 6 Ole Miss - 4:30 p.m. - SEC Network
Game 8: WInner of Game 4 vs. No. 6 Auburn - 8 p.m. - SEC Network
Quarterfinal Round - Thursday, May 22 and Friday, May 23
Game 9: Winner of Game 5 vs. No. 1 Texas - 3 p.m. - SEC Network (Thursday)
Game 10: Winner of Game 6 vs. No. 4 Vanderbilt - 6:30 p.m. - SEC Network (Thursday)
Game 11: Winner of Game 7 vs. No. 2 Arkansas - 3 p.m. - SEC Network (Friday)
Game 12: Winner of Game 8 vs. No. 3 LSU - 6:30 p.m. - SEC Network (Friday)
Semifinal Round - Saturday, May 24
Game 13: Winner of Game 9 vs. Winner of Game 10 - Noon- SEC Network
Game 14: Winner of Game 11 vs. Winner of Game 12 - 3:30 p.m. - SEC Network
SEC Baseball Tournament Championship - Sunday, May 25
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